Episode 5Nov 10, 2025· 4:36

The Days You Don't Want to Work Out Are the Most Important | Fitness Discipline Over Motivation

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About this episode

Ashley Grant reflects on gym consistency and fitness discipline during a 100-day fitness challenge, describing two days she was in physical pain and still got dressed or drove to the gym before having to turn back. She talks about showing up on days you don't feel like it, the absence of regret after working out, how repetition makes gym-going feel like second nature, and why group fitness works as personal…

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Who this episode is for

This episode may resonate with you if:

You've been consistent for weeks and it's actually working, but this morning you woke up and genuinely cannot find the will to go — and now you're spiraling about whether skipping once means you're already falling off.

You keep finding legitimate-feeling reasons not to go — a headache, a tired body, a busy day — and part of you suspects you're making excuses but you're not totally sure.

You've started and stopped fitness routines before and you're trying to figure out what actually makes consistency stick this time, not just for a few weeks.

You work out alone and it's starting to feel like a chore — you're wondering if there's a version of this that you'd actually look forward to.

You pushed through a workout on a day you felt awful and came out the other side feeling proud of yourself — and you're looking for something that validates that feeling.

Questions this episode wrestles with

Is it normal to never feel like working out even when it's a habit?

answered

Ashley says yes — even after making it a daily habit, there are still going to be days you wake up and just don't want to go. The habit doesn't make the resistance disappear.

"don't want to go to the gym. Even if you have made it a habit, even if you have made it something that you do every single day, there are going to be days that you're going to wake up and you're going to be like, God, I just don't want to go"

Does motivation ever actually show up before you start, or do you just have to go?

answered

Ashley's answer is that you just have to go — she frames the not-wanting-to-go days as the exact days you cannot cancel, saying 'you cannot cancel this date with yourself.'

"trying to be serious, if you are trying to lose weight, if you are trying to get stronger, trying to get healthier, trying to make it a habit, you cannot cancel this date with yourself. You have to get up and put in the work. And it sucks."

When is not going to the gym a real reason versus just an excuse?

answered

Ashley describes the bar as being in so much physical pain that you literally cannot move — and even then, she got up, got dressed, and drove to the gym before turning around.

"one of the days, I went to the gym and then turned around and had to come back home because I was in so much physical pain. But the point is, I made the commitment to go even though I didn't want to go. And the days that you don't want"

Does working out ever stop feeling like something you have to force yourself to do?

answered

Ashley says the more you do it, the more it becomes second nature — and the shift she describes is that the days you don't go start feeling weird, not the days you do.

"is the more you do it the more you will become it'll it'll become ingrained in you it'll become second nature you'll feel weird on the days that you don't go because those two days that I could"

Will I ever actually want to go to the gym, or is it always a fight?

answered

Ashley shares that during her 100-day streak, the two days she couldn't go felt genuinely strange — she missed her people and the gym itself — suggesting the wanting does eventually show up, just on the other side of the habit.

"you don't go because those two days that I could not go to the gym They felt weird, man. Yeah, okay, I was hovered over in pain and trying to get better. But I really missed being around the gym. I missed being with my people that I was working out with. And that's the other thing."

Setting expectations: Despite the title's promise of a discipline framework or motivational system, this episode is not a structured guide to building workout habits or overcoming psychological resistance. It's a short personal pep talk from Ashley, drawing on her own 100-day fitness streak — including the two days she drove to the gym and turned around in pain — to make one simple point: go anyway.

Tone & style

Ashley opens with the premise that even habitual gym-goers will hit days they don't want to go, then illustrates it with her own experience during her 100-day challenge — including driving to the gym and turning back in physical pain — to argue that commitment over motivation is what makes the habit stick. The episode resolves on the idea that repetition eventually makes skipping feel weirder than showing up.

Personal experience and opinion. Ashley draws on her own 100-day fitness challenge and personal observations, not research or professional guidance.

toneCandid & motivational

focusAshley's case — drawn from her own 100-day fitness challenge — that the days you don't want to go to the gym are exactly the days you have to go anyway.

stylesolo_monologue

energymedium_high

complexitybeginner

pressure Levelmedium

emotional Texturedirect, self-aware, encouraging, slightly self-deprecating

Notable quotes

"you cannot cancel this date with yourself. You have to get up and put in the work. And it sucks."

— Famous Ashley Grant

"one of the days, I went to the gym and then turned around and had to come back home because I was in so much physical pain. But the point is, I made the commitment to go even though I didn't want to go. And the days that you don't want"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"anybody say that they regretted working out."

— Famous Ashley Grant

"about torturing yourself with other people in the room. makes it that much better and that much easier for you to commit and stick around"

— Famous Ashley Grant

"second nature you'll feel weird on the days that you don't go because those two days that I could"

— Famous Ashley Grant

Episode transcript

Organized into 3 chapters — open any part to read the full text.

0:141. Go Anyway: Showing Up on the Hard DaysAshley argues that the answer to not wanting to go to the gym is simply to go anyway, sharing her own experiences during her 100 days of fitness where she got dressed and showed up even on days she was in physical pain.2:362. No One Regrets the Workout They DidAshley observes that she's never heard anyone say they regretted putting in the time on themselves, only that they regretted overdoing it or getting injured.3:363. Finding Your Groove and Sticking With ItAshley talks about how repetition makes gym-going feel like second nature, and how finding the format you love — for her, group fitness — makes it easier to keep showing up.

Open full transcript

Mentioned in this episode

personFamous Ashley Grant

The host of More Movement Please and narrator of the episode, who shares her personal experience with her 100 days of fitness challenge to illustrate showing up even on painful days.

Key themes

Go anyway on the hard days

Ashley's central point is that when you don't want to go to the gym, the answer is simply to go anyway — she frames skipping as canceling a date with yourself.

Excuses vs. real reasons not to go

Ashley distinguishes between genuine inability to move (the two days she missed during her 100-day streak due to physical pain) and the everyday 'headache or stomach hurting' she calls excuses.

The 100 days of fitness streak

Ashley references her personal 100-day fitness challenge, during which she only missed two days — both times because she was in so much physical pain she literally could not move.

Showing up even when you turn around and go home

Ashley describes one day she actually drove to the gym and turned around due to pain, framing the act of getting dressed and going as the commitment that counts.

Nobody regrets the workout they did

Ashley says she's never heard anyone regret putting time into themselves — only regret going too heavy, overdoing it, or getting injured.

Repetition until it becomes second nature

Ashley says the more you go, the more it gets ingrained — to the point where you feel weird on the days you don't go, which is what happened to her on her two missed days.

Group fitness as personal accountability

Ashley says group fitness is her specific groove — working out with other people and knowing they'll wonder where you are if you don't show up is what keeps her coming back.

Finding what works for you

Ashley acknowledges that not everyone wants to work out with others, and frames the broader task as figuring out your own preferred format and then committing to it.

Connected episodes

Shared experience

Group fitness for accountability and fun

#64The Fastest Way to Quit Working Out (And How to Make Sure You Don't)

Shared experience

Group fitness as accountability mechanism

#55Three Things That Will Make You Less Likely to Skip Your Workout

Contrast

Partial effort vs. showing up at all

#3I Wasted 18 Months Half-Assing Fitness | Why Going All-In Is the Only Way to See Results

Shared experience

The 100-day fitness challenge origin